LAUSR

Abstract Carbonization of cobalt complexes is a simple but versatile technique to prepare magnetic cobalt/carbon nanocomposites (MCoCNs) as heterogeneous catalysts for solution-based reactions. However, most of MCoCNs consist of sheet-like carbon matrices with sparse cobalt nanoparticles (Co NPs), making them exhibit low catalytic activities, porosity and magnetism. In this study, 2,6-Pyridinedicarboxylic acid (PDA) is selected to prepare a 3-D cobalt coordination polymer (CoPDA). MCoCN derived from CoPDA consists of a porous carbon matrix embedded with highly-dense Co NPs. This magnetic Co NP-embedded carbon nanocomposite (MCo@C) appears as a promising catalyst for energy generation and biomass conversion. As H 2 generation from NaBH4 is selected as a model reaction for energy generation, MCo@C rapidly catalyzes hydrolysis of NaBH 4 to generate H 2 . E a obtained by MCo@C is also much lower than many noble metallic and cobalt-based catalysts. MCo@C also exhibits a stable and efficient catalytic activity for catalyzing hydrolysis of NaBH 4 for multiple-cycle H 2 production. In addition, MCo@C can be also used to catalyze conversion of the lignin model compound, vanillyl alcohol (VAL), to vanillin (VN) using H 2 O 2 and air as oxidants. The selectivities for VN can be up to 99% and 100% using H 2 O 2 and air as oxidants, respectively. MCo@C can be also re-used to catalyze VAL conversion to VN without significant loss of catalytic activity. These results indicate that MCo@C is a conveniently prepared and highly effective and stable magnetic cobalt/carbon nanocomposite for versatile catalytic applications. The preparation scheme here can be also applied to fabricate other carbon-supported metallic catalysts.